---
title: "From a Viral Horror Short to the Big Screen: The Makers of Obsession"
description: "A horror short about a cursed antique chair drew more than 10 million views online and launched Curry Barker and Anthony Pavone from an L.A. acting class to a Focus Features release, 'Obsession' — a path the pair traced in a new Hollywood Reporter interview."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Elias Rosen"
published: 2026-07-02T02:48:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-02T02:48:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/from-a-viral-horror-short-to-the-big-screen-the-makers-of-obsession
tags: ["horror", "film", "Curry Barker", "Anthony Pavone", "Focus Features", "entertainment"]
---
# From a Viral Horror Short to the Big Screen: The Makers of Obsession

A horror short about a cursed antique chair drew more than 10 million views online and launched Curry Barker and Anthony Pavone from an L.A. acting class to a Focus Features release, 'Obsession' — a path the pair traced in a new Hollywood Reporter interview.

The path from internet oddity to studio release rarely runs in a straight line. For Curry Barker and Anthony Pavone, it ran through a haunted chair.

## A friendship, then a short

Barker and Pavone met roughly seven years ago in a Los Angeles acting class, where Pavone was assisting the coach and Barker was a new student, [The Hollywood Reporter recounted](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/obsession-the-chair-anthony-pavone-curry-barker-interview-1236629024/). Barker had built a following on the YouTube comedy channel "That's a Bad Idea," but his more sinister instincts surfaced in "The Chair," a 2023 horror short — starring Pavone as a man whose grip on reality frays after he brings home an antique chair — that racked up more than 10 million views and traveled the festival circuit.

## The short that opened doors

That short caught the eye of producers Mark Lane and James Harris, leading to Barker's feature debut, "Obsession." The film follows a music-store employee, played by Michael Johnston, whose crush on a coworker (Inde Navarrette) curdles into something darker after he comes into possession of a wish-granting object — a premise Focus Features and the film's listings frame as a horror-tinged satire of modern dating. Cooper Tomlinson, Barker's longtime YouTube collaborator, and Andy Richter round out the cast, [per Focus Features](https://focusfeatures.com/obsession). The studio released it theatrically on May 15, 2026, and it is now available on digital platforms.

## Keeping each other honest

The friendship comes with rules. Pavone appears in "Obsession" only in a small party-scene role — one he auditioned for. "Don't just hand me a role because it's your friend," he told the Hollywood Reporter, describing a discipline the two seem to take seriously; he says he later auditioned for, and did not get, a part in Barker's next project. It's an unusually unsentimental arrangement for a partnership born in friendship — and, perhaps, part of why a viral short about cursed furniture turned into a real career rather than a one-off.

## A familiar pipeline

Barker and Pavone are the latest example of a now-established pathway: horror shorts that find enormous online audiences and vault their makers toward studio deals, a route that has produced a wave of young genre filmmakers in recent years. Whether "Obsession" marks the start of a long run or a promising first step, the duo have already proved the premise — that, handled well, even a haunted chair can open a door in Hollywood.

## Sources

- [Before 'Obsession,' There Was 'The Chair'](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/obsession-the-chair-anthony-pavone-curry-barker-interview-1236629024/)
- [Obsession — official film page](https://focusfeatures.com/obsession)
- [Obsession (2025)](https://mubi.com/en/films/obsession-2025)